Pop Songs
by Wolfgang Wright
So there was this girl—gorgeous, among other things—who asked if I liked so-and-so’s music, and I said no, and she said why, and I said I don’t like pop songs, why not, because the sound sounds so packaged, so manufactured, so, so, so phoney, and she looked at me like I was nuts.
And I said here, I’ll show you, and I opened up YouTube and I played for her a song I liked, an acoustic version recorded live, just the singer and her guitar sitting on a bed, with her cat curled next to her, singing and strumming notes, and when the song was over, I looked at her—the girl—and I could see that she was impressed, but still, she didn’t know what she had heard, and so I found the album version, the slick version, the version made for the masses, the one recorded in a soundproofed room soundproofing all the music out of the music, with an engineer engineering the audio like it’s a bridge or a railroad or something, and the producer, some C-E-O in a suit, standing over everyone, making sure the music sounded like his music, the music of money, and I hit play.
And as soon as the overmixed, multitracked, digitalized to death “music” struck her ears, she knew, she knew, and with her eyes ablaze, she turned to me and said you’re right, you’re absolutely right, show me more—and I was in love.
Wolfgang Wright is the author of the comic novel "Me and Gepe" and various short works scattered across the ether. He doesn’t tolerate gluten so well, quite enjoys watching British panel shows, and devotes a little time each day to contemplating the Tao. He lives in North Dakota.